Home Forums SQL Server 2005 T-SQL (SS2K5) sql_variant RE: sql_variant

  • March 13, 2009 at 10:31 pm

    #959619

    Steve Mong (3/13/2009)

    Certain classes of apps can't anticipate the data types they'll be required to store, manipulate, etc.

    Master Data Management apps have always been prominent examples (wherein Oracle's product uses its own version of sql_variant). Microsoft's CRM product is another case in point...they elected to go with XML 'property bags', but that has its own strengths and weaknesses. The challenge is basically the same, and variants offered the way out.

    Further, I believe this challenge is shaping up to be a central modeling issue for the future of IT: highly configurable SaaS offerings. In a nutshell, experience with variant data types will grow to be a necessity for archs, modelers and developers.

    Heh... yep... just like the folks that use VARCHAR(MAX) for everything... 😉

    --Jeff Moden

    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

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